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Testimonies for the Church Volume 2
In your Christian experience your soul abhorred vanity, pride,
and extravagant show. When you have witnessed the expenditure of
means among professed Christians to make a display and to foster
pride, your heart and lips have said: “Oh, if I only had the means
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handled by those who are unfaithful in their stewardship, I would
feel it one of the greatest privileges to help the needy and to aid in
the advancement of the cause of God!”
You often realized the presence of God while you sought in
your humble way to enlighten others in regard to the truth for these
last days. You had experienced the truth for yourself. That which
you had seen, and heard, and experienced, and testified unto, you
knew was no fiction. You delighted to present before others, in
private conversation, the wonderful way in which God had led His
people. You recounted His dealings with such an assurance as to
strike conviction to the hearts of those who listened to you. You
talked as though you had a knowledge of the things whereof you
affirmed. When speaking to others in regard to the present truth,
you longed for greater opportunities and a more extended influence,
that you might bring to the notice of many in darkness the light
which had lightened your pathway. At times you looked at your
poverty, your limited influence, and your best endeavors, frequently
misinterpreted by the professed friends of the cause of truth, and
you were nearly discouraged.
Sometimes in your unsettled state you erred in judgment, and
there were those who should have possessed that charity which
thinketh no evil, who watched, and surmised evil, and made the
most of the errors they thought they saw in you. But the love and
tender pity of Jesus were not withdrawn; they were your support
amid the trials and persecutions of your life. The kingdom of heaven
and the righteousness of Christ were primary with you. Your life
was marred with imperfections, because it is human to err; but from
what the Lord has been pleased to show me of your discouraging
surroundings in the days of your poverty and trial, I know of no one
who would have pursued a course more free from mistakes than you
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did, were they situated as you were, in poverty and embarrassing
trials. It is easy for those who are spared the severe trials to which
others are subjected, to look on and question, and surmise evil and
find fault. Some are more ready to censure others for pursuing a